Life 'n' Such

I have done bachelors in Electronics and Telecommunication engg. and then Masters from Kent State University in Computer Technology.

I have a huge family (I consider good friends as family). My family is wonderful! I live with my husband Yasir Drabu in Kent, Ohio in United States.
My immediate family comprises of my parents, my big brother, his beautiful wife, and their cute little baby Tara. Oops I almost forgot the dog, Winnie.
My husband’s immediate family: his parents, his pretty baby sister, her husband and their cute little daughter Zainab.

My interests are: shopping (more like bargain hunting, i love finding good deals!), travelling, reading (fiction and sometimes non-fiction), socializing(i am a social butterfly..what can i say!), dancing, art-y stuff (sometimes though), cooking(my new hobby), and more.

My new passion ‘cooking’ got me this blog started. I have lots of recipes written in books, diaries, pieces of papers in one drawer in our kitchen, and so my husband suggested to me to make a database of the recipes first, and then recently he said, why dont i make a blog. So there you go! Another blog to the ever increasing blogs on this pla-net.

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food/biscuits.jpg
I ate this recently at my friend Sultan’s house, and took the recipe from her. Its delicious, crispy, and really easy!
they call it easy pogaca

Ingredients:
For the dough:
3/4 stick softened margarine,
almost 1/2 cup oil,
almost 1/2 cup yoghurt,
1 spoon baking powder,
2 drops vinegar,
less than 1/3 tbsp salt, (or less)
flour enough to make a soft dough, ( i will explain more later in the prep part)

If you want stuffing inside, you could use mozarella cheese/ feta cheese /turkish cheese(would be the best), with parsley/ olives etc.

Sesame seeds (black or white) or poppy seeds for garnish part.
1 Egg yolk.

Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients listed in the dough, except the flour. Add handfuls of flour gradually and mix till you get a soft dough, that is, as my other good friend Ulfet explained, when the dough starts cleaning out the mixing bowl, its almost time to stop the flour. Maybe another half handful or so but not if it makes the dough hard.

Now take almost little chunks of the dough and keeping in between your palms, round it, flatten it, and make a little bowl kindof shape out of it, to put a spoonful of stuffing. Close it well, and again round it between your palms and place it in the baking tray. ( For this recipe you will need almost 2 13X10 inch baking trays.)

Make the rest (I make 12 out of this recipe. But it could be more or less, depending on size.)

Then brush the tops of these with egg yolk. And sprinkle the sesame or poppy seeds.

Bake at 350 deg F till the base of the biscuit and the egg yolk top is browned (not burnt) and mostly golden overall. You will know when its ready. Or try one, if you arent sure.

I think its more than 20 mins. When i make it next time, I will note the time it took me, and edit this recipe

Well..easy huh?

Update Jan 12, 2006: Today I made this recipe for biscuits, it takes about 35-40 mins. (ooops…not 20 mins )

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This recipe taste great, the shape isnt round, but for beginners like moi, its great! Trust me, its worth a try.

Ingredients:
2 lbs ricotta cheese,
1 cup sugar
1 small pack whipping cream,
approx 4 oz half and half (about half cup),
1/2 cup milk,
sugar as per your taste( for the milk part of the recipe; I use almost about 6-8 spoons of sugar)
nutmeg,
cardomom,
chopped nuts for garnish

First mix the ricotta cheese, 1 cup sugar, and a pinch of nutmeg and cardomom powder. In 13X9 inch dish, spread the ricotta cheese mix and bake it in the oven at 350 degrees covered witha foil (so as not to brown the top). Bake about 40 mins – 50 mins.

For the milk part:
Whisk the half and half, whipping cream, milk and sugar (as per taste) till the sugar dissolves. Add the nutmeg and cardomom and the nuts.

When the baked part cools off completely, cut into cubes, and pour the milk mix over the top. Let it soak in the refrigerator for a while. Serve chilled.

Enjoy!

3 Comments | In: Dessert, Food, Indian | | #

I just wanted to setup a blog..so here is the first post.

Also about me:
My name is Vaishali Vinzanekar / Sabah Drabu. Haa… confused? Well, when I got married, my first and last name was changed( they do that sometimes in Asian countries like ours India/ Kashmir). So its Sabah Drabu. More About me in the ‘About me’ post.

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